Interesting video. We currently live in a big city where we are tired of the "entitlement" generation. For example, we were walking a few months ago and a young lady (about 20) hit the bag my husband was carrying as we walked down the side of a street in our subdivision (we do not have sidewalks). She broke the box that a bag of wine was in and it made a huge pop.

She acted like it was our fault! I'm surprised she even stopped. (I think the guy with her made her. He was a police cadet.) She didn't change her tune until we said she could give us her driver's license, etc. or the police would get it from her.

We are tired of living around that mentality. When we ask someone very nicely not walk their dog on our lawn they argue with us or sometimes cuss us out. We love dogs. We just hate mowing the lawn and stepping in dog poop.

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Interesting video. We currently live in a big city where we are tired of the "entitlement" generation. For example, we were walking a few months ago and a young lady (about 20) hit the bag my husband was carrying as we walked down the side of a street in our subdivision (we do not have sidewalks). She broke the box that a bag of wine was in and it made a huge pop.

She acted like it was our fault! I'm surprised she even stopped. (I think the guy with her made her. He was a police cadet.) She didn't change her tune until we said she could give us her driver's license, etc. or the police would get it from her.

We are tired of living around that mentality. When we ask someone very nicely not walk their dog on our lawn they argue with us or sometimes cuss us out. We love dogs. We just hate mowing the lawn and stepping in dog poop.

I could go on and on....

If you have enough money to live in a very upscale area you are likely to escape this. Otherwise, good luck!

Ha

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"As a general rule, the more dangerous or inappropriate a conversation, the more interesting it is."-Scott Adams

Ontario is nice if you want elbow room. It has an ag economy like SW Idaho. That is a two-edged sword because the employment base necessary to maintain an ag economy is dropping but it isn't subject to the business cycle.

Portland (my home)
Two great things about Portland is the sense of adventure and the ability to laugh at ourselves.

Sometimes it gets a little annoying. For example bike use is encouraged but many cyclists are headless of vehicles and pedestrians. I give them lots of space as they are messy to clean up off the street.

The city leaders provide drama and I expect that a couple of them will not survive the next election if anyone with an ounce of brains and leadership qualities steps up.

City employees do a decent job delivering services, I think they are more effective than their counterparts elsewhere and I haven't encountered 'little emperors' - yet.

....
Two great things about Portland is the sense of adventure and the ability to laugh at ourselves.

Sometimes it gets a little annoying. For example bike use is encouraged but many cyclists are headless of vehicles and pedestrians. I give them lots of space as they are messy to clean up off the street.

....

I think many bike riders are headless, tending to ignore stop signs or ride several abreast on winding roads. Mo' bettah they realize that in a collision with a car, they, right or wrong, lose. Oregon bike riders, in this Green state, may feel more entitled than those in other states.

For beer drinkers it may be of interest that Portland has more micro-breweries and brew-pubs than any other city - something like 36?

About a week ago I observed the police giving a ticket to a cyclist in NW Portland. Given the location odds are he ran a stop sign. The neighborhood is very pro cyclist but concerned about their compliance with traffic laws.

Right. Public transportation in Portland can take you anywhere, even to the airport. If I have to, I could live without car. Everything I want is within walking distance, from gym, super market, movies theater, sport bar, etc...

Is it mostly in the inner city? We hadn't really considered Portland because we didn't want the hassles of a big city but maybe now after hearing from different people one of the burbs might fit what we want?

WE like to walk to places but we would also like to be not so close to our neighbors. WE realize that those are probably two conflicting goals.

We relocated to Bend in 2006 to escape the fast pace of San Diego County where we had lived for 35 years. There are no freeways in Central Oregon, which we do not miss at all. The air is clean and the skies are blue. The annual precipitation and number of sunny days is close to what we had in San Diego. We enjoy the four seasons and being close to snow parks.

It's nice not to have to pump your own gas and to no longer pay almost 10 cents on the dollar for sales tax. We enjoy walking our dog along the beautiful Deschutes River and in the numerous well-manicured city parks.

Even though it's high desert, a large part of the city is shaded by Ponderosa Pines. Bend is home to several small theaters, a community college, and an open air amphitheater that features concerts by well-known artists.

The people are friendly and many of the residents are transplants from California and other states. It is a very clean city with a low crime rate. Traffic moves very smoothly with fewer traffic lights because of our ultra efficient roundabouts. Bend is a city with a population of about 76,000, but with a small town feel.

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"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately... and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived."

People in Portland are so friendly, people wave at you , 'Hi there', 'how are you?', 'it's nice out', are the phases that you may hear walking down the street.

Even driving, you will see people yeild for your changing lane, you don't really need to speed up to change lane, just flick the blinker and people will yeild. Talk about civility :-)

I lived in Beaverton (Portland metro), it is 12 miles from the city center. You can park you car in park and ride and hop on the light rail - that would take you to most places that you want to go in Portland.TriMet: MAX Light Rail Service

Is it mostly in the inner city? We hadn't really considered Portland because we didn't want the hassles of a big city but maybe now after hearing from different people one of the burbs might fit what we want?

WE like to walk to places but we would also like to be not so close to our neighbors. WE realize that those are probably two conflicting goals.

Yes, I can't think of a place where you can have both.

We were in Hillsboro (Portland suburb with Intel as its anchor) Saturday. My has that town grown up! You might be able to find a larger lot with an older home there.

There are homes in Portland metro that abut Forest Park but walkable to NW 23rd.

Okay, now the weather. People should know about the rain and grey sky in Portland. It could rain/drizzle for couple weeks straight, however, only a few days of snow if you are lucky :-). Spring and smmer are fantastic, we have a few days of 90+ in the summer and totally bearable, I know people live here for years yet never installed air conditioner. Very mild weather.

Oh one more thing for ski lover. Mt Hood is the only place that opens year round, just 1.5 hour from Portland. Yes, you can ski, snowboard in the summer with your shirt off and get tan at the same time.

Thanks for the additional ideas. We have friends in Bend and agree, it was a nice place but we don't like the idea of living in the desert. We want to be able to garden, either have our own or join a community one.

Beats me. I noticed a forest of cranes on our drive out there, maybe the construction of the new Intel plant is stirring up a lot of dust. A chip fab plant needs clean air so that shouldn't last long.

We had a couple days of hot weather (ok, ok - two days of sun ) so that may have been a factor.

Last night Portland had an electrical storm that seemed to hang out to the east (where the air currents start to raise to go over the Cascades). We doubtless had a few showers with that too. That would have improved our air quality today. Hillsboro is in the Tualitan Valley, to the west of Portland. The may not have experienced those showers.

That DEQ website is great. Notice that the link to Eugene's air quality data is at the bottom of the page. In typical U of O Green Beanie fashion they want to do their own thing.

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